Apple Leaks iPhone 5 Press Release, LTE Features On Website Ahead Of Event Date

New evidence discovered directly on Apple's website tells us that the name of the new iPhone, expected to be unveiled today in San Francisco, could very well in fact be "iPhone 5."

On Tuesday evening, several MacRumors readers uncovered a number of search results on Apple's website with links to inactive pages and press releases. Of the press releases, which had titles like "Apple Unveils New iTunes" and "Apple Introduces New iPod Touch, iPod Nano," one release stood out: "Apple Introduces iPhone 5."

Try out these searches on Apple's website yourself. This search pulls up results for both the iPhone 5 and new iTunes press releases, while this search reveals a link to an upcoming "New iTunes" page on apple.com.

New search results on Apple also include references to LTE on the iPhone, which would also appear to confirm the rumor that the next iPhone will support the high-speed Long-Term Evolution network.

"iPhone 5" Instead of "New iPhone"?

Even though we generally know the inside and outside features of the next-gen iPhone, one question that has been debated for some time is the name. Some believed Apple would call the sixth-generation iPhone "the new iPhone," as the "iPad 3" was called "new iPad" in March. On the other hand, that invitation for the iPhone event did have that giant "5" shadow...

Despite Apple's invitation, there seemed to be more evidence suggesting the name "New iPhone." On Sept.5, a photo posted on Dutch website iPhonenieusblog.nl showed a woman holding up the iPhone 5's packaging box just as it left the printing press. The boxes didn't say "iPhone 5"; the packaging very clearly read "The new iPhone."

The packaging also featured the signature Apple logo, the iOS 6 logo, and includes a photo of the new iPhone itself with its taller form factor, larger screen and extra row of icons.

Although we believed for some time that the next iPhone would be called "the new iPhone," it seems like every step of the way, either officially or unofficially, Apple is telling us it's called the "iPhone 5." The inactive press releases on Apple's website, ready to be distributed in a few hours, likely tell us the truth: The next iPhone is called the iPhone 5.

We'll confirm this news later today at Apple's event.

Here's a brief summary of the alleged devices expected to debut at Apple's media event today:

iPhone 5: Thanks to batches of images released by insiders within Apple's supply chains and repair shops, we generally know what the iPhone 5 looks like. We expect the iPhone to feature a bigger, thinner front plate that stretches the screen just beyond four inches to achieve a 16:9 resolution ratio to watch 1080p HD videos in a widescreen format.

According to alleged prototypes and images, Apple has also reportedly expanded and redesigned its speaker grills, migrated the FaceTime camera to be directly above the earpiece, moved the earphone jack from the top right corner of the phone to the bottom left corner, and introduced a new camera opening on the backside of the phone between the camera lens and the LED flash, which likely houses a small microphone. Finally, we believe Apple has fixed its iPhone 5 with a unibody metal back instead of an all-glass facade, which could potentially improve call reception, and has also endowed the iPhone with a new quad-core A6 processor, and that heavily-rumored smaller dock connector.

Also, there's a greater-than-likely chance this phone will actually just be called "new iPhone."

For more information about the new iPhone 5's alleged features, read this article.

iPad Mini: On July 10, a photo set of the alleged iPad Mini suggested the mini tablet would be much wider and a little taller than the Nexus 7, Google's recently introduced 7-inch tablet, and it would be slightly thinner than Apple's third-generation "new" iPad. Gotta Be Mobile believes the iPad Mini will measure about 213.36mm tall and 143.67mm wide, which is "approximately two-thirds of the size of the new third-generation iPad." (The new iPad is 185.67mm wide, 241.3mm tall, and 9.39mm thick.)

The iPad Mini will likely feature a 1024 x 768 display (still hoping for Retina, however), front and rear cameras (FaceTime and iSight), a smaller dock connector (like the iPhone 5), and similar tech specs to theiPad 2. Read this article for more information about the iPad Mini's alleged features.

New iPod Touch: On Aug. 25,GizChina posted new photos of what it claimed to be a next-generation iPod Touch, which featured a less tapered design and a wider rear camera whole, which suggests Apple may have added an LED flash to the back of the iPod to be like the iPhone.

As you can see from the photos these cases suggest that the next generation iPod touch will have a new design (at least to the rear) and seem to be have a much less pronounced taper to the edges when compared to the current iPod touch 4. The hole around the camera area to the left for example looks to have been elongated and tapered to fit around a possible LED flash to help with low light photography, and there is also the appearance of a new 'mystery hole' in the lower left hand side of the case.

The report goes on to speculate the "mystery hole" is a speaker or microphone of some kind.

New iPod Nano: A 9 to 5 Mac report from Sept. 7 said that there's a new iPod nano with a "completely new codename from last year's model, which may point to some design and internal changes." While there have been some rumors of Apple returning to a taller iPod Nano design, code suggests this new iPod Nano will come in eight new colors, with the highest end model costing $149 for 16 GB.

13-inch Retina MacBook Pro: Before Apple shocked the WWDC audience with a completely redesigned MacBook Pro with Retina Display, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted Apple would unveil such a notebook, and he even correctly forecast most of the features, including a lighter and slimmer form factor than the current MacBook Pros, the lack of a disc drive, and the Retina Display. After the event took place, Kuo followed up on his earlier report by sharing a new note with AppleInsider, in which he described how Apple will follow up the 15-inch model with a smaller, 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display, to be released in early October.

Kuo had actually mentioned the 13-inch model in his initial report, adding that the basic computer would sell at $1,199. Apple starts selling the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display at $2,199.

New iMacs: Again on Sept. 7, a report from Clayton Morris of Fox News said a refresh to Apple's iMac lineup was "imminent." "Get ready, because the iMacs are coming," Morris said. "I've been hoping for an iMac update and it looks like my wish is about to come true! Multiple sources tell me that a new lineup of desktop machines from Apple is imminent." Giving credence to Morris' report, multiple reports after WWDCsuggested new iMacs would be arriving this October, and most recently, MacRumors said Apple has been experiencing shortages of 27-inch iMacs.

Your Thoughts

Are you looking forward to Apple's event today? Are you planning to buy the iPhone 5? Leave us your thoughts in the comments section below.